Miracle at St. Anna (2008)

Lee makes a European film allowing philosophical questions and moral questions to supplant desire for personal satisfaction and identifiable this is a Spike Lee film signature patterns. There are a number of excellent directorial decisions in this film. Lee's camera is sensitive, gentle and sincere. He shows us the many ways our eyes are deceived and how much of what we perceive is illusion. I think its a great film that is inspirational, has meaning and is both emotionally and intellectually satisfying. I hope that Lee will continue to make films outside his comfort zone and articulate events from the African American experience around the world to show our contribution to history and civilization.

Fmovies: Miracle at St. Anna starts like this: retired black soldier Hector Negron (Laz Alonso) is watching the film The Longest Day on TV, which shows John Wayne (1907-1979) heroically fighting on World War II.To the display of North American value and fervent patriotism from white soldiers, Negron says: "We also fought on that war".The next day, he goes to his modest work, which consists on selling stamps in the postal office.Then, a familiar face appears behind the window...and Negron kills him with an old German gun.

After that provocative beginning, I was expecting to see a movie overflowing of the classic racial message from director Spike Lee.However, the ideological excess quickly disappears when the story becomes into a tapestry of cultures and events which do not only celebrate the black soldiers who fought in the war, but also to the brave members from Italian resistance...and even some honourable Nazis who followed orders, but without forgetting the human compassion, and without blindly accepting the ravings from the Führer.

However, those interesting elements also make the movie a bit tiring on some moments.At diverting the attention on tangential situations and individuals to the black regiment, screenwriter James McBride looses the focus on some occasions, and that makes the movie to get a bit boring on those parts.The sub-plot of the "magic" kid is particularly irrelevant and useless, as well as the rivalry between two soldiers for the love of a woman.I know that the dramatic slopes are valid tools frequently employed in Lee's movies; but the result in Miracle at St. Anna was not as good as, for example, in Do the Right Thing or Summer of Sam.

On the positive side from Miracle at St. Anna, we have solid performances, good setting and brutal and realistic battle scenes, which may not reach the level from Saving Private Ryan, but which generate appropriate intensity, chaos and suffering.

I mentioned on other occasions I am a fan of Lee.I understand why his usual position, which is simultaneously challenging and explosive, makes his movies difficult to assimilate by many people.But I think his big talent as a director is undeniable, even if we only take his least political movies (like 25th Hour and Inside Man).Miracle at St. Anna is clearly one of the least achieved films from his career, but that does not mean it is bad at all.In fact, I think the film deserves a recommendation because it is well done and it is generally interesting.However, I cannot deny that with more focus on the screenplay and a stricter edition, this movie could have been much better.

I attended the world premier of Miracle at St. Anna at Toronto International Film Festival. Unfortunately as much as I respect Spike Lee as a filmmaker I thought the movie was a bit dull and kind of boring. At 166 minutes I found that the movie was overlong and dragged too much. I became restless after awhile as the movie progressed. The story didn't seem to go anywhere, was uninteresting and I had trouble connecting with it. It was hard to follow at times as well. The movie jumped all over the place at several points to different years in the history of the characters. I found this to be jarring and irritating. Spike Lee should have taken more time to edit his film because each of the scenes went longer than they should have. It's not the worst movie I have ever seen although it could have been better. My expectations were high. I came away somewhat disappointed.

Miracle at St. Anna fmovies. Length is a factor for this film, and it's not the normal action driven war film. I was lucky enough to attend the premier in NY and from the perspective of a Cadet at West Point, I would say that I respected this film BECAUSE it "jumped around." It showed all perspectives and that there were people with good intentions on all sides. The bad intentions were included as well, and though it doesn't grab you the entire time, it tells an interesting tale. Sadly, most people don't go to see a war film for this reasons, they all want Saving Private Ryan these days. But that's not what war is always about, and this film shows the other aspects. The black soldiers are each equally representative of varying perspectives that these men had. With a lot of duality also represented, this film leaves a lot to think about if you watch it with the right eye. It seems most people I've talked to have a problem with length and action, but if you don't pay so much attention to that and just enjoy it, you'll find a nice film that takes a different approach.

Is this movie as bad as they say? Has Spike Lee lost focus? It garnered a lot of nominations, but no wins; what could be the matter? The opening was fascinating. There was going to be a story with multiple subplots that would make this an intelligent movie. Even Laila Petrone couldn't distract me as hard as she tried.

The story shifts to a battle between the Germans and the Buffalo soldiers, which was outstanding, and, as expected, shows the prejudice of the white officers in command. Only four men escaped the artillery barrage. It was funny watching Train (Omar Benson Miller) dragging a head with him as a good luck talisman. Soon, he is also dragging an 8-year-old boy (Matteo Sciabordi).

The story settles to life in town where various stories, including the explanation for the killing in the beginning, are told. Another big battle in town ends the story and brings us back to the present.

Was it overly long? No, I found that it was compelling enough that the time flew by. It was a good war movie with a twist. I found it enjoyable.

Let me begin by saying that this movie was okay. But it could have been way better.

The story itself is great and kept me interested until the end, but it's execution could have been much better. Throughout the movie, some of the acting ranged from good to bad to downright lame. Jon Turturro's cameo as a detective was extremely disappointing, for instance. The acting picks up when the flashback begins, but every so often it rockets down.

The battle scenes were, for lack of a better word, comical. They were over the top and stereotypical of any other war movie, complete with bodies being flung from explosions in an exaggerated fashion and people sobbing over amputated rubber limbs.

The characters were all over the place on the sympathy scale. Stamps and Trey (or is it Train?) elicit plenty of sympathy, whereas Bishop and whatever the girl's name was only brought out anger from me.

The worst part of the movie is the editing, though. Some of the battle scenes are choppy, and there are entire cuts to different scenes for split seconds that we could have done without (they serve no purpose whatsoever).

My biggest problem was the stereotypical racism of the white characters in the movie. The only American white people in the movie are shown as black-hating jerks who's ignorance leads them to destruction.

Overall, the movie was good. Not amazing, not great, definitely not a masterpiece, but it wasn't terrible or bad or crappy. It was a great story, but it could have been executed much better.

6.5 Stars.